Sony Pictures has set Iron Man 3 helmer Shane Black to direct The Destroyer, Fight Club scribe Jim Uhls’ scripted adaptation of the adventure book series by Warren Murphy that will give framed New Jersey cop Remo Williams another shot at a movie franchise. Uhls wrote the script with James Mullaney, who co-authored books in the series and became the sole writer of The Destroyer series until it ended in 2008.

Williams was a Newark cop until he was framed, sentenced to death, then resurrected following a botched execution. He is given a second lease on life serving in the enforcement arm of the clandestine U.S. government agency CURE. Williams teams with the Asian assassin Chiun and together they clean up and eliminate those who oppose America’s interests. The book combined old-school suspense and Eastern mysticism, and slick, violent capers.

I never saw the 1985 film incarnation of Remo Williams, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, starring Fred Ward, but it definitely looks like it could’ve come from the Monster Squad era of Shane Black projects:

Anyway, I don’t see how Shane Black could possibly be doing this, the Predator sequel, AND the noir movie with Baby Goose and Russell Crowe. And if he was going to drop out of any of them… let’s be honest, I’d just as soon it’d be this one. That said, if Shane Black is doing a buddy comedy, I’m going to be there. I just hope he shows up to the set in whatever outfit this is:

There’s a scene in the 1985 movie where Fred Ward keeps Captain Janeway alive (if not conscious) through a gas attack, by tapping on her wrist at the specific tempo to heighten her sexual arousal. This scene fits the movie perfectly, and isn’t a major disservice to the books (in that Remo Williams essentially has whatever superpowers the writer wants him to have, which may or may not have ever been mentioned before, and Chiun is always much, much better).

The books are completely gonzo. There’s at least one point where Remo is essentially the broken-necked incarnation of Shiva, the Destroyer, and like his love for Chiun, his “little father” saves him. The scene near the end of the movie where he (spoiler!) kills all the bad guys by dropping a log from a Spiderman high cable onto a bunch of logs conveniently placed to avalanche across the road, knocking their jeep down to the beach is very much in the spirit of the books. I’ll admit I was disappointed that the jeep didn’t explode in proper 80s action fare fashion.

What I am saying is that the man who created Lethal Weapon, The Last Boyscout and The Last Goddamn Action Hero could potentially make a movie franchise from this source material successfully.